Catching Cold
by PaintedPetrichor
Summary: Sure, she had thrown a hockey stick in the girl's face the very minute they met, but that didn't mean their relationship had no chance, right?


**_Imagine your OTP meeting when Person A, a hockey player, accidentally hits Person B, a spectator, in the face with their hockey stick, giving them a broken nose. (otpprompts on tumblr)_**

 ** _Fair warning, there is some minor blood/injury in the first chapter, but nothing too serious._**

* * *

In hindsight, Pearl probably shouldn't have gone out into the rink while hockey pucks were still flying around, especially without proper headgear. But, five minutes into her half-hour of reserved, private practice time, her patience with the lingering hockey players had run dry.

"You can't practice here anymore," she shouted across the rink, waiting at the entrance with the blade guards of her figure skates already removed. "This is _my_ practice time!"

One of the players, the larger of the two whose messy ponytail poofed out from under their helmet, skidded to a stop. "Whaaat?"

 _"You_ need to _leave!"_ Pearl yelled, cupping her mittened hands around her mouth to amplify her voice.

The player paused for another moment, then stuck their tongue out at her. "Naaahh!" they replied, before they resumed chasing after the other remaining player.

Pearl's face screwed up with frustration and her clenched fists shook at her sides. She pulled open the door to the rink and stomped over the barrier and onto the ice. "You two both need to go _right now!"_ she demanded, gliding over to the skirmishing players.

The ponytailed player continued to ignore Pearl's commands. Instead, upon intercepting the hockey puck form its path toward the goal she had been defending, she whacked it in the figures skater's direction. The puck whizzed between Pearl's skates, startling her enough to nearly knock her over. The player chortled with laughter as she pushed past Pearl to retrieve the puck.

"That's not funny!" Pearl protested, trailing after the girl. "This rink is reserved for _my_ private practice right now! Go talk to the lady at the ticket booth, she'll tell you!"

"Oh, whatever!" the hockey player huffed. "We're almost done. You need to take a chill pill or something!" She readied her stick to send the puck shooting past Pearl again, but when she swung it down across the ice, the puck wasn't the only thing to go flying.

The girl's hockey stick slipped from her hands and propelled at such a trajectory that Pearl knew there was no avoiding her fate. The impact knocked her off her feet, and for the first few seconds all she could feel was a hot numbness spreading in her face, but once she noticed the blood drooling down her face, pain and panic immediately set it.

The other hockey player, who had been silent up until now, slowly glided into view, her eyes wide with shock. "You did _not_ just do that," she said, pulling off her helmet. She was shorter than the other player, who was already rather short to begin with, and she wore a red headband that partially covered her eyes.

"I-I didn't mean to _hit_ her!" the girl with the ponytail exclaimed. She rushed over and kneeled in front of Pearl. "Aw, man, this is bad."

Pearl's chest heaved rapidly as her breathing sped up. Her mouth hung open awkwardly, as she was unable to breathe through her injured nose.

"Crap, th-that's a _lot_ of b-blood," stammered the shorter player, who was hovering behind the one trying to get a closer look at Pearl's face. She covered her mouth, her cheeks flushed green with nausea.

Pearl pulled her hands away from her face cautiously, and gasped when some blood splashed down onto her skirt.

The girl with the headband gagged. "That's it, I'm out," she said, turning away and making for the rink's exit.

"Wait, what!?" the other player protested. "Ruby, come-"

"No way, Amethyst- I'm _out,"_ Ruby shouted back, speeding out of earshot. "See ya next week!"

"Ugh," Amethyst groaned, throwing her head back in exasperation. "She thinks she's _sooooo_ tough but as soon as someone looses a tooth she wusses out." She pulled her focus back to the figure skater she might have just disfigured. "So, uh, are you… okay?"

Pearl shrugged helplessly, tears pricking at the edges of her eyes. "How bad is it?" she asked, carefully pulling her hands away again.

Her nose was bent at an obviously unnatural angle, and a dark bruise was already forming around it. Amethyst winced, an action she was quick to regret, as it sent Pearl deeper into her hysterics. Pearl swiftly covered it up once more before letting out a choking sob.

"No, no, no, it's fine!" Amethyst insisted, hurriedly trying to assure her. "It's okay, you're fine! Just… don't look at it. Just look at me and breathe, okay?" A few shaky gasps later, Pearl nodded, finally taking her eyes off of her blood-stained skirt to look the other girl in the eye.

"Good, that's great," Amethyst said, nodding with her. Amethyst got back up and grabbed her hockey stick, which she tucked under her arm. "C'mon," she said, pulling Pearl up by the arm, "let's go sit down somewhere." Pearl got to her feet slowly, still trying to stop her nose from bleeding. "I think you're suppose to hold your head forward," Amethyst said, taking the other girl's hands and skating backwards as she led her across the rink. "Or maybe that's backwards, I'm not sure."

"It's forward," Pearl mumbled, dipping her head down as she was pulled across the ice. A she watched droplets of blood drip down from her face onto the ice, her head began to feel fuzzy.

"Right, forward. I think you're supposed to pinch it too when it's bleeding like that, but you probably shouldn't touch that."

"O-okay," Pearl said softly, putting all of her focus into taking long, slow breaths.

Amethyst glanced back over her shoulder. "Almost there," she said, watching the other girl with concern. Pearl gave a slight nod.

As they approached the wall, Amethyst let go of one of Pearl's hands to grab at the door. After fumbling with the latch and shoving the door aside, Amethyst stepped over the barrier and then turned back to steady the other girl as she stepped out. Amethyst started to reach up to wrap an arm around the other girl's shoulder, but she stopped herself, and settled for just offering a hand. Pearl grasped it in one hand and the wall of the rink in the other. Her bony legs quivered as she lifted her foot off the ice, and before she could plant it on the rubber mat outside the rink, she dived forward.

"Ack!" Amethyst grabbed Pearl by the waist as she toppled, and Pearl's weight sent them both crashing down.

"Get off of me!" Amethyst grunted, trying to shove Pearl's limp body away from her own. Amethyst grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her up. Pearl's head slumped forward, her eyes closed. Amethyst flipped her over onto her back. "Oh, shit," she swore, shaking the unconscious girl's shoulders. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!"

After a few moments, Pearl's eyes fluttered open.

Amethyst quit jostling her and sighed with relief. "Phew, you're okay!"

Pearl stared up at her blankly. "Did I… pass out?" she asked, trying to sort out the dizzy mess that her head had become.

"Yeah, you dropped like a rock," Amethyst told her. "Boom! Right on top of me!"

"Oh." Pearl's gaze shifted, breaking eye contact. "Why… why am I… _underneath_ you?"

"What? Oh, oh!" Amethyst scrambled aside, realizing that, in trying to wake the other girl, she had ended up kneeling over her. "Sorry, I was just trying to-"

"It's fine, it's fine!" Pearl blurted, pushing the subject aside.

"Yeah, yeah." Amethyst got up and grabbed Pearl's hand to pull her back up. "C'mon, let's get you-"

"No!" Pearl exclaimed, lying back down. "Let's just… stay here a minute. I could faint again."

"Oh, alright," Amethyst said, sitting back down. She hovered over Pearl, watching as she took deep breaths. _In and out, in and out, in and out._ Amethyst synced her breathing with Pearl's. It took a minute before she realized how hard she had been staring.

"So, you better yet?" Amethyst asked, breaking their silence.

"I, I think so," Pearl answered, sitting up slowly. Amethyst offered her a hand and pulled her to her feet. As they made for the stands, Pearl clung to Amethyst's arm tightly. Amethyst tensed up, unsure how to respond.

"Oh, sorry," Pearl apologized, loosening her grip. "I was just… feeling a little light-headed still, that's all."

"I-it's fine!" Amethyst sputtered. "Uh, here, you shouldn't go falling again." Amethyst wrapped her arm around the other girl. "There!" she said, turning away to hide the blush she knew was plastered across her face. Unbeknownst to her, Pearl was mirroring her actions exactly.

After settling Pearl on a bench and unlacing her own skates, Amethyst made a run for something to soak up the blood with. Soon she came jogging back to the stands with a fistfull of napkins and a wet plastic bag.

"The guy at the concessions didn't have any ice packs," Amethyst said, plopping down on the bench, "but I got him to fill a bag with snowcone slush." Pearl accepted the bag with dampened enthusiasm. After wiping what blood she could from her face, she pressed the ice shavings against it gently.

"Is your mom or dad around?" Amethyst asked, looking around at the empty stands. Other than another athletic bag sitting a few rows up, the rink was empty of anything but a few of the center's staff.

Pearl shook her head. "No, my mother runs errands during my practices. She won't be back for another forty-five minutes."

"Well, my dad'll be here to pick me up soon. We can take you to a hospital or something."

"Okay, thanks." Pearl winced as she readjusted the makeshift ice pack. "We should probably tell somebody about the mess we left on the ice."

"Eh, I'm sure someone'll take care of it," Amethyst said, stuffing her hockey gear into her bag.

Pearl started to get up. "I'm going to go tell someone," she said, trying to steady herself on her ice skates.

"Ugh, _fine,"_ Amethyst groaned, getting up and shoving Pearl back into her seat. "If it's _that_ important to ya, I'll do it." She hurried off to the ticket booth, leaving Pearl to unlace her skates and continue icing her nose.

After she returned, Amethyst helped Pearl gather up her things and led her outside to a car pulled up to the front of the building. Amethyst threw their bags into the back of the beaten, old minivan and climbed inside. Pearl hovered outside the door; the warnings of _'stranger danger,'_ which blared red and urgent in her head, were hard to ignore.

"C'mon," Amethyst urged, "we don't got all day! If you wait too long they might have to saw it off!"

 _Could that really happen?_ Pearl couldn't help but consider, adding a new source of panic to head-butt with the rest of her concerns, however briefly. She stalled for another moment, until she caught her reflection in the van's window.

Pearl climbed in the car.

Most of the van was cluttered with sports equipment, food containers, and a wide assortment of other junk, so Amethyst had to sit up in the passenger seat, leaving Pearl alone in the back. While the vehicle had a homey, 'lived-in' aura, Pearl couldn't bring herself to be anywhere near comfortable in it, even if she wanted to. For one, it was a _stranger's_ car, and two, it was _disgusting._ Who knew where half of this garbage had been, or what the crusty stains on her seat's armrest were from. Pearl kept her arms and legs tucked in as close as possible.

Amethyst's father was alright. He made polite conversation, distracting her from her injury with some casual questions. _How long had she been skating? Did she compete? Had she ever tried hockey?_ His daughters had only ever played hockey, so he didn't know much about figure skating. He also teased Amethyst: how many kids was she going to bludgeon in the face before she learned how to hold a hockey stick? Amethyst insisted that this was the first and last time.

Other than that, Amethyst was quiet the entire ride to the hospital.

It was in the ER waiting room that Pearl remembered to actually call one of her own parents. She paced at the far end of the room, occasionally glancing over at Amethyst, who sat alone at the other end of the room, as she tried to explain the situation to her frantic mother. When the call finally ended, Pearl joined Amethyst in one of the waiting room chairs. Amethyst, however, didn't bother to look up from the carpet, so they sat in silence.

Amethyst's father left to pick up his older daughter a few minutes later. He told Amethyst to stay and wait with Pearl until her mother arrived. Before he left, he leaned down and whispered something to Amethyst.

Another minute of silence ensued before Amethyst went to retrieve a pen and a sheet of paper from the reception desk. She tore the sheet in half and scribbled a phone number down on one of the pieces.

"My dad said I should get your phone number so I can call to see how you're doing or whatever," she said, handing the pen and both halves of the paper to Pearl. "That's mine."

"Oh! Alright," Pearl said, accepting the paper. She wrote down a number and signed her name in a loopy cursive, then passed the slip back and tucked the other one neatly into her jacket pocket. Amethyst, after finding that she had no pockets, folded her paper several times and held onto it.

"So…" Amethyst said, "is your mom coming?"

"Yeah, she should be here soon," Pearl answered.

"Is she mad?"

"She's mostly worried," Pearl said. "I probably should've waited to tell her I fainted again, though."

"Does that happen a lot?" Amethyst asked, finally looking up from the floor. She saw the sickly bruise that had spread across the figure skater's face, reaching far enough to make it look as if she had just received two black eyes. "Fainting, I mean."

"Not really," Pearl said, "just every once in a while, like when I broke my arm. Usually it's not a big deal, but my mom always freaks out when it happens."

"Oh." Amethyst's gaze returned to her lap. She fiddled with the paper with Pearl's phone number on it, folding it and unfolding it until it had become soft with the creases. "Does your face still hurt?"

"Yes."

"...Oh."

"Well, it's more of a numb throbbing now," Pearl told her, holding the bag of now-melted ice shavings to her face. "Not as much as it… did."

Amethyst groaned, running her fingers through her hair. "Look, I… I'm _really_ sorry for messing up your face," she suddenly confessed. "It was an accident, I swear!"

"I know," Pearl sighed, "it's fine."

"No, it's _not,"_ Amethyst insisted. "It was stupid, and now your nose could be permanently screwed up, and I _know_ it's gotta hurt really, really badly, and it's all _my_ fault, a-and I'm _really, really_ sorry, okay?"

Pearl nodded, letting the bag of water settle in her lap. "It's alright, I accept your apology. Actually, I suppose I should thank you," she said, "for helping me. That was… very nice of you."

"What? Well, I couldn't just ditch you like that," Amethyst said. "It wasn't a big deal."

A nurse approached the two of them and asked Pearl if she was ready to see a doctor. Pearl asked, in a small voice, if she could wait just a few more minutes for her mom. The nurse complied and let them be.

Her mother rushed in five minutes later. She wasted no time in fussing over her daughter, asking frantically if Pearl felt dizzy while she checked that all her fingers were intact. Pearl didn't resist, having long been used to her mother's fretfulness. Amethyst, however, almost felt suffocated by the woman's attentiveness, even though it wasn't directed at her.

Before she knew it, Pearl was whisked away to another area of the hospital. Just before they turned down a hallway, Pearl gave her a small wave. Amethyst waved back, but she didn't think Pearl saw it.

Suddenly, left on her own, Amethyst felt very alone and unwelcome in the waiting room. She was quick to slip out into the parking lot, finding that dusk had arrived while she was inside. Amethyst settled herself on the sidewalk underneath a lit streetlamp, where she unfolded the scrap of paper still in her hand. She looked at it for a moment and then sighed, crumpling the slip back up in her fist.

When her father arrived to pick her up, Amethyst almost left Pearl's phone number on the sidewalk. She readied herself to let it drop from her hand, until she heaved open the van door.

Someone had forgotten their skates.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this fic, I would be absolutely thrilled if you could take the time to leave a comment, however long or short it may be!**

 **Huge thanks to my beta,** **ABirdWhoSquawks,** **for her invaluable advice! Please go and check out her own fabulous stories!**

 **I originally started this story with a simple prompt, but I've grown rather attached to this AU, so expect more!**


End file.
